How to Clear CAT MBA Entrance Exams in First Attempt

"Fire in the belly leads to success" - as they say will help you to Clear CAT MBA Exam. My friends CAT exams are the online entrance exams conducted by the IIMs to get into the prestigious B-Schools in India. It is a two stage process means candidates first have to clear the entrance test after that they would have a shot at GDPI and the whole process would be based on Merit. Candidates applying for the exams need to be aware about the exact paper pattern for the exams as they tend to fluctuate year after year. We have also discussed various tips and tricks on how to clear CAT exam in very first attempt. Kindly go through the complete article and if you have any queries or questions in mind feel free to ask below in comments.

NOTE: The exam would consist of MCQ questions and Non MCQ questions. There would be negative marking for MCQ questions whereas for Non MCQ questions there won’t be any negative marking.

Generally CAT written exam cutoff marks is at high level. So candidates have to score really well i.e. at least 98 percentile to get a call from the IIMs and would also help in getting top merit rank.

CAT Paper consists of various subjects where candidates can score according to their capability. Subjects are Quantitative Aptitude, Logical and Analytical Reasoning, Verbal Ability and Data Interpretation.
CAT paper consist all different questions and with various subjects. So candidates need to quickly start solving the each section. CAT exam is divided in the following way as given below:

How to Clear CAT MBA Entrwnce Exams

Section 1: Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension

1. Grammar- Students that are appearing for CAT are not expected to be experts in Grammar, in order to crack the test, but they are expected that they are able to have functional usage of idioms and phrases. For this you need to go through some grammar books that would make your concepts clear in those subjects after that you can start giving mocks in order to clear them.

2. Vocabulary- It is important that you try and know the meanings of as much word as possible, because not only for specific questions, but also while you are reading RCs you would be thrown at words that if you are not aware of, the chances of you solving them would reduce tremendously. One way to overcome this is to read a lot, try your vocabulary strong you could even use origins of the words in order to try and remember certain words as they are interlinked in some way, and then it’s all about practice. If possible try and learn as much word as possible either from dictionary or flash cards that are readily available in the market. And having a strong vocabulary would surely help you in solving.

3. Jumbled Sentences- These are quite tricky. One needs to read the sentence first. The trick here is do not try to solve the question all by yourself, don’t try to find the sequence all by yourself. CAT has given you options, just apply the options and one of them will be correct. Most of the candidates try to bring out the sequence and then the look for the matching option. This consumes time and hence they find it difficult to score in here.

4. Critical Reasoning- It is an analytical type of questions wherein you have to read the question try to understand what’s given true in the sentence and them come to a rational conclusion. The questions may contain context that you believe to be true otherwise, but don’t go with your earlier beliefs, what is given in the question should be taken as true and not otherwise, then come up with a rational answer that would go along with the question given. You should horn your skills in analysis, evaluation. Interpretation, inference and explanation. And try and get acquainted with the different type of questions that could be asked in the exam. This would surely help you a lot.

5. Reading Comprehension- This is one of the major time consuming section in the entire section and believe me that you either need to be very well versed with reading fast or you should be able to get the key words in the passage that would be the answer to the questions asked. Learn to scan through the paper ignoring what is not important as the RCs that would be asked in the paper would be too big in size, hence first it’s very important to check how many questions are linked to the given RC, as too few questions would not be ideal for you to attempt first, that you could leave for the latter part of the test when you would have finished solving the ones that you know. Also trying practicing reading in blocks the best way to practice that is to read the newspaper, it is divided into sections wherein each line can be read in one go, just practice that daily, and that would come in handy during the test.

During the exam- the moment you go live with the paper, go through half the paper, just give it a glance, and have a good feeling about it. This would help you understand where you could find the areas that you are strong at. Try attempting them first and then go for the other sections. My personal experience says that if you have a positive feeling that you can successfully solve the paper then your chance to Clear CAT Exam has a high percentage.

Section 2: Logical Reasoning and Data Interpretation:

While solving Logical Reasoning never assume anything that is not given in the question. The statements that are given in the exam holds true regardless of it doesn’t hold up to the conventional wisdom or not. Never ever go with some answer just because you know it is true. Here they are checking whether given the condition you have the aptitude to assimilate all the conditions and come up with a rational answer that fits the bill.

You should be careful about the words like “Some”, “All” and “None” that would be asked in this type of questions. These words have the capability to change the meaning of the sentences if not handled carefully.

Use the options that are given in the paper to come up with the answer, cause at certain times these are the quickest way to find the answer, if you are lucky you may be able to guess the answer by just getting 2 or may be 3 sequence in place.

Data Interpretation questions would be calculation intensive and for that practice a lot of percentage problems, be it pie chart or trying to find how much is one data as compared to the others percentage would come in handy so speedy calculation of them is necessary. This are easy scoring if you have a good grip on them also do practice a lot on this subject and try to unravel various types of graphs that you come across. Because in CAT you never know which type of challenge they would throw you into. Be prepared with charts, tables and graphs.

Data sufficiency is another set of problem that comes in paper, what it tries to do is given a condition you need to answer whether that could be solved using either 1 of the options or both the options or more data is required on that condition in order to answer them. These are pretty easy and much easier and time friendly if you practice it sufficiently, what is expected is that you keep your composure, for answering such type of questions presence of mind is very important. So stick to the basic as they won’t test your calculation skills or grammatical skills to that extent as that are expected from other questions and if you could get it right you would be saving ample amount of time also you would be adding onto your marks as well.

Section 3: Quantitative Ability:

The question papers in the last few years have been tough! Not that the difficulty level is raised but the questions are lengthy, hence they do consume a lot of time. Most of the candidates consider this subject as a scoring one, and indeed it is, but where they fail is, they don’t practice enough. This is not a subject where you can go with the attitude of last minute reading or glance. Here you need to put in long hours and solve maximum no of questions in stipulated time. Time and work, Time and Distance, Percentage, Profit and Loss, Ages Problems carry more weight age. Focus on these topics more. Also try and give as many number of mock test as possible as they would encourage you to think faster given that there is a time limit. This will make you land good score in maths and hence will definitely a differentiating factor CAT exam.

Topic covered in Maths Paper:

Number System

HCF, LCM

Simplification

Decimal Fractions

Ratio and Proportions

Unitary Method

Percentage

Time and Distance

Time and Work

Profit and Loss

Average

Simple and Compound Interest

Mensuration (2D and 3D)

Algebra

Geometry and its application

So everyone out there who really wants to clear CAT exams, work hard my friends, because there is no short cut to success. If you work hard, you’ll end up seeing yourself in those sacred IIMs, for sure!

How to Clear CAT MBA Exams Easily

1. Clearing CAT needs patience and hard work. You need to study day in and day out for the exams then only you may achieve something unbelievable. You need to give attention to the subjects you are weak at. Manage your timetable and start working adequately.

2. If you want to clear CAT exams the right time to start your preparation is right now, then and only then you will succeed for the exams. You have to stay disciplined throughout the year only then your goals will be realised.

3. Revise more and more before the exams. Many times it happens that we tend to forget the things we studied last so you need to revise concepts before going for the exams. Continuously start giving mock exams and note down your progression, don’t get bogged down by low scores keep working on them.

4. Start giving mocks 2 months before the test date and keep on working on topics that you feel you are weak in. If you want to face the same level of difficulty as that offered by CAT then go for IMS test series, if you would love to challenge yourself you can go for TIME test series. Be sure that you don’t get depressed with the score, gradually it keeps on increasing if you keep on practicing.

5. If you want to clear CAT exams you need to focus on Reading Comprehension. The size of the RCs are quite large hence proper time management is required while answering this section. You should practice a lot of this section from the best available sources.

6. Clear your basics will surely make you understand well all your topics for which you are studying. One good advice would be to get hold of some reliable books from reputed tuition classes.

7. You should be thorough with all the math formulas as saving time on this would allow you attempt more of this question easily and this could be a major differentiator. This section needs a lot of practice on the topics that are mentioned above.

So this was all about how to clear CAT MBA Exam. Candidates are requested to start preparing for CAT online exams with the above given sure shot tips to clear the exams. Daily study and practice will surely help you to achieve success in the examinations. Also appearing candidates can download the previous year question papers for guidance and start solving questions which will help you for time management from the link provided below.

Keep following Jobsfundaz for CAT exams study materials and notes which will help you for exams we will be updating our page for you. Generally CAT results is announced by second week of January, so keep visiting our page for latest updates and notifications we will update on our page once its officially announced.

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